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Coming up on ����vlog-8 news close up, state lawmakers passed dozens of bills during *** busy week at the Iowa State House, where the biggest bills stand and what they'll change for Iowans. *** year-long push to keep drivers' hands on the wheel and away from their phones, the bill that's now one signature away from becoming law and why law enforcement says it will boost public safety. Thousands of Iowa bridges are now considered in poor condition. ����vlog investigates what's being done to fix it. This is Iowa's news leader. This is ����vlog 8 News close up. Good morning and thanks for joining us for ����vlog 8 News close up. I'm chief political reporter Amanda Rucker. *** bill requiring drivers to keep their hands on the wheel and off their cell phone is now sitting on the governor's desk. Governor Kim Reynolds called for the legislation in her condition of the state speech at the start of session. The the use of phones while driving unless it's in *** hands-free or voice activated mode. Violators face *** $100 fine or more if the violation causes injury or death. Now people in the cycling community say they have been fighting for this change for years. The reason why the coalition's been working on this for over 7 years now, is the stories of all the people who have been directly impacted by this. For me it is *** big sigh of relief. This is *** fundamental change for safety and roadway safety in Iowa. We're also hearing from Iowa law enforcement about why they say this will boost public safety. We'll have that coming up in about 10 minutes. The Iowa House again approved legislation to protect landowners from carbon capture pipelines. It's another issue that lawmakers have been pushing for for years. Summit Carbon Solutions is working to build *** carbon pipeline through Iowa and several other states. House File 943 would ban the use of eminent domain to take property from land. For hazardous liquid pipelines. Lawmakers also passed House Fi 639, which would increase the insurance requirements for liquid hazardous pipeline operators. Now lawmakers amended this bill and added in five other proposals, all of them related to carbon pipelines, eminent domain, and the Iowa Utilities Commission. That now the House has passed similar bills before, but they've never advanced through the Iowa Senate. While some expressed concern about opposition in the Senate, other lawmakers called on their Senate colleagues to take action this year. The messages from our fellow citizens is clear, stand up for the Constitution, stand up for private property rights, stand up for century farms, stand up for property owners, stand up for the birthright of our fellow citizens. Do what is right and regardless of whether the Senate's gonna pass it or not. We're gonna fight for it here because it's the right thing to do. I can't control the Senate. I can't control the governor's office. I'm doing everything I can to get the Senate to pass this legislation. I'll continue to do it, but by God, we're gonna continue to do what's right. In *** statement, *** spokesperson from Summit Carbon Solutions wrote, quote, We have signed easements with more than 1320 Iowa landowners and have adjusted the route based on feedback from stakeholders and regulatory agencies. These actions ensure the project responds to concerns, secures the future of ethanol, and opens pathways to low carbon markets. House and Senate lawmakers also passed *** bill that would add work requirements for the state's Medicaid expansion system. It would require Iowans to work 80 hours per month to qualify for those benefits. ����vlog's Bo Bowman shows us what that would mean for the thousands of Iowans who rely on the program. Work is more than just *** paycheck. Republicans in the Iowa Senate passed *** bill Tuesday that would require Iowans to work at least 80 hours per month in order to receive Medicaid and supplemental nutrition, or SNAP benefits. There would be exemptions for certain groups caregivers to children under 6 years old, disabled Iowans, those who are medically frail or medically exempt, high risk. women, anyone under 19 or over 65 years old, those receiving unemployment, and participants in *** substance abuse treatment. Floor manager Senator Mike Clemish says the goal is to push Iowans to be less reliant on the program. By requiring work, we are providing an important stepping stone to help Iowans develop the life skills, build responsibility. regain *** sense of purpose. An analysis from the Legislative Service Agency, *** nonpartisan group, estimates 32,000 Iowans could lose coverage beginning in 2026 if the bill is enacted. And in order to remain healthy and able to work, Iowans need access to health insurance. Nolan Witstham is *** licensed independent social worker in Humboldt County who works. With many clients who rely on those benefits, she says there are *** number of barriers in place keeping those Iowans from working in the first place and says the bill leaves more questions than answers, because usually it is *** multi-faceted issue. It's never just *** one thing that's keeping them from being able to obtain employment. Bowman, ����vlog 8 News, Iowa's news leader. The federal government would have to grant Iowa *** waiver for those work requirements to take effect. Now if they grant the waiver but later revoke it or *** future president blocks the work requirements, the bill says Iowa would stop offering its Medicaid expansion program. Now Democrats say that would mean thousands of Iowans lose their health care. These these additional requirements for people on Medicaid to have to jump through are expensive and more costly to the state than the savings that come back, but the real issue here is. Building into this bill *** trigger mechanism that would kick 181,000 Iowans off of their healthcare. Now Republicans say the work requirements will help Iowans build responsibility and regain *** sense of purpose. They say data from the Department of Health and Human Services shows that there are up to 100,000 Iowans on the Medicaid expansion program that aren't working but are able to work. They say implementing the work requirements will take significant investment, and they don't want future administrations to undo that. It's something that puts Iowa in the driver's seat for this program to make sure that it's going to best work for our state, so we feel that it's very important because then again we're back to being in *** system just being at the whim of the federal government regardless of what the administration would be. What do you say to people who are concerned that they could lose health care? Well, I would say that they should definitely be contacting the federal government to know that we're serious about empowering states. *** bill allowing *** doctor to deny care if it violates their conscience also passed through the Iowa House last week. Some medical professionals say they've had to choose between their deeply held beliefs and their livelihoods at times. Lawmakers say this bill would protect medical students who feel they've been discriminated against because of their religion. Among those who identify as Christians as medical students, 36% say they have experienced discrimination during medical school based on the moral, ethical, or religious beliefs or have been pressured to violate those beliefs. We had several of those students come here to our subcommittee and testify. So this is happening. This is not just some imaginary event that's out there. The bill would make it so *** person can't bring civil action against *** medical professional who declines the service because he or she is exercising their conscience. Democrats who oppose the bill say it would also allow insurance companies to deny coverage if it's against their conscience. I don't see why we need to give them *** loophole to deny care to people who've been paying an exorbitant amount of money for medical coverage and God forbid they get an an expensive disease to to treat could be you could be me, could be our kid. Let's not give them that loophole. This bill is unnecessary and it's dangerous. Firefighters are one step closer in their fight to get expanded coverage for cancer. The Iowa House unanimously passed *** bill last Thursday expanding the list of cancers covered for first responders by the state. It also allocates $1 million to cover cancer screenings for them. The House passed *** similar bill last session, but it did not make it in the Senate. House leaders say they're hopeful that Senate lawmakers will take it up this year. Coming up, *** look at why Iowa has so many bridges in poor condition. What's being done to keep people safe and how much those repairs cost. But first, we take *** closer look at the bill to stop cell phone use while driving. Welcome back to Close Up. *** bill to stop distracted driving in Iowa is waiting for *** signature from Governor Kim Reynolds. The Iowa House and Senate passed the legislation last week. It would make it illegal to use your phone while driving unless it's in hands-free or voice activated mode. If signed by the governor, the bill would take effect in July. Law enforcement would issue warnings for violations until next January. I'm joined now by Chad McCluskey. He's representing the Iowa Police Chiefs Association. Thanks for being here this morning. So law enforcement has been pushing for this for years. What's the goal here? Uh, ultimately *** safer Iowa, right? Um, very rarely does the legislature have the ability to, uh, pass *** law that that on day one has such an immediate effect on all of Iowa, and our goal of course is, is the safety of of all Iowans and uh especially when you talk about the motoring public on the interstate highways, city streets, um, that's where you know we have *** lot of injuries, we have *** lot of fatalities from traffic accidents. And traffic crashes and the more that we can reduce that, um, the better off we are. What does the data show on uh what distracted driving is causing in Iowa? Absolutely. So, um, we estimate, uh, from *** coalition that was put together for this bill, um, if we can reduce distracted driving by 10% in the state, we estimate that that will prevent 1,263 crashes, 708 injuries, and 6 deaths and $50 million in economic damages. Additionally, Minnesota passed *** similar law and in the first year they saw *** 30% reduction in traffic crashes, and Illinois passed *** similar law with *** 22% reduction in traffic crashes in the first year. Um, I, you know, anybody that drives, uh, anywhere these days, if you pull up to *** stop sign or you're driving down the 235 or whatever and you look to your right or left, chances are somebody's on their phone and if they're on their phone, they're not paying attention. And when traffic backs up because of *** *** slowed vehicle or *** traffic crash or something like that and they're not paying attention, that second or two that it takes to react means the world when you talk about injuries, fatalities, and traffic crashes. And so the goal is to get people back to paying attention to what they're doing on the on the highways and by getting the phone out of people's hands. Uh, that's gonna drastically reduce those distractions. We heard lawmakers even on the floor talking about incidents that they've had close calls or, you know, sharing stories from Iowans that have tragically lost loved ones, um, you know, are there any incidents or. that have stuck with you uh as you've pushed for this legislation. Uh, I've been in emergency services for, um, over 20 years, over 25 years, uh, and I've worked, uh, *** number of crashes, um, that resulted in fatalities that we tied back to extractor driving. Uh, one in particular I can think of, uh, there was *** younger male, late teens, early 20s that crest *** hill in the wrong lane and struck another driver head on, and the other driver was, um, upper 70s I believe the other driver died. The individual is on his phone, uh, made it through the crash and uh when you have to work those things there's an impact on that but then also, um, you know, us having to go to families and repeat the same message of this could have been prevented you know this could have been prevented if somebody just would have paid attention to what they were doing instead of driving distracted that's *** hard pill to swallow. I know Iowa currently has *** law banning texting while driving. you know what's the difference between what this legislation will do versus the distracted driving law that kind of already exists? Sure, so the texting while driving law that's currently in place is specific to texting. And the problem with that is we as law enforcement see people literally on their phones watching YouTube, uh, playing on social media, playing video games, watching movies, watching Netflix, um, *** host of other things that are not texting. And because that law is so specific and tied to texting alone, it makes it *** challenge for enforcement at this point. This law will open that up to where you, you can't have *** device in your hands, and uh that's truly the distraction component is we need that device out of people's hands. We need them paying attention to the road. They can still use uh um navigation system and in voice mode right in hands free mode so they can get where they need to go safely, but the goal is not having that distraction in your hand that you're looking at when you're going down the road. Well thank you so much for for joining us. We really appreciate it. Absolutely glad to be here. Coming up, we take *** look at what it will take to improve the condition of Iowa's bridges and the national research that shows we're not the only state in desperate need of those repairs. Iowa consistently ranks first as having the highest number of bridges in poor condition. Chief investigative reporter Suzanne Banky shows us why and what's being done to fix it. Iowa consistently ranks first as having the highest number of bridges in poor condition. One reason, there are *** lot of them. ����vlog investigates along with the Hearst Investigative and Data teams reported on the state of bridges this week. One of the driving factors of that is. We have an aging inventory. Jim Nelson leads the Iowa DOT's Bridges and Structures Bureau. Nelson points out Iowa built tons of bridges in the 1950s, 1960s, 1970s, and even 1980s. Some are even older. ����vlog visited *** rarely used bridge this week, the Harvey Railroad Bridge in rural Marion County. It was first built as *** railroad bridge in 1878. It gets an average of 12 cars *** day going across its one lane. We have *** tremendous amount of bridges. On low volume roads that are, you know, classified as poor. ����vlog investigates looked at the number of bridges in poor, fair, or good shape in the last 20 years, using data from the National Bridge Inventory. The National Inventory shows Iowa with almost 19,000 bridges in 2024. About *** quarter of them were in poor condition. If you look back to In 2005, the percentages were similar. Iowa had more than 21,000 bridges at that time. As bridges are replaced or repaired, others may go from good to fair condition or fair to poor. Experts say *** poor bridge is still safe. It's just in need of repair. For any given construction season, we have over 100 projects underway, and it's *** mixture of Bridge replacements. There's usually 30 to 40 bridge replacements, some new bridges, which are often capacity improvements, and then there's many, many bridge deck overlays and many joint repairs and other various repairs. Iowa County Engineers Association Service Bureau director Brian Moore says it's an ongoing process. We can expect more of those to start to decay. And it just goes in waves over time as you replace that wave with roads and bridges in Iowa needed for heavy farming vehicles and machines, the upkeep is ongoing. There's always going to be work. There's always going to be work. So Suzanne, you've been poring over this data and there's *** lot of it there. I think Iowans may hear, you know, we're one of the highest in poor bridge condition, um, but they may not realize that *** lot of those bridges are not traveled by *** lot of people each day. They're not, um, in Iowa we have *** lot of county county roads and county bridges that's considered our secondary. Road system our primary or first road system would be, you know, those interstates, those big uh state highways 6320 at the interstates 3580, all of those that's the primary system but now we get down to the county level where we have *** grid system based on, you know, 1 mile intersections and *** and *** grid so we have tons of bridges because we also have tons of waterways. So just because something has *** poor designation doesn't mean that it's because it's getting *** lot of high usage. It means it's because it's getting to the end of its life cycle, but it is still drivable. Transportation leaders were very clear that an unsafe bridge is actually *** closed bridge already, so poor just means those bridges need some maintenance and some repair. And even though *** lot of these bridges that need repair are not used by *** lot of drivers, they have to repair them to make them safe for the people that are that are driving on them. They do and one of those main reasons is think about the, uh, think about the uh semi loads of ***. Cultural products, farm equipment, big trucks, those are all things that produce *** little bit more wear and tear than maybe like *** two door vehicle does, but we need those around Iowa right for our farmers for um. All of the egg industry, um, and even manufacturing right like there's just *** lot of weight there so and what's the cost to the state? I mean, with so many bridges in need of repair, is there *** concern about just how expensive this could be? I think there's *** lot of recognition that it's very expensive to replace *** bridge or to repair. Replacing is really the most expensive option. In fact, if you look at county bridges in 2024, there were there was $100 million from different revenue streams that went to repairing, rehabbing, and replacing some county bridges, and that's just in the county system. Um, there was *** net gain of 9 bridges off the poor list from that. So that doesn't sound like *** lot, but. That's what they can do and the DOT, and they're constantly prioritizing and inspecting. In fact, I was impressed to learn that bridges get inspected visually every two years, and they are looking at lots of things. That checklist is very long, very thorough. One of the things you mentioned in your. Story was the Lansing Bridge repair um you mentioned that about I think 80% of the funding for that repair is coming from the federal government. Well, at *** time where we're hearing *** lot about federal funding freezes federal funding cuts, you know, were any of the people that you spoke with concerned about *** potential, you know, stop in federal funding for some of these projects? I think everybody's in *** wait and see mode. I, I didn't get that there is. They didn't necessarily address it right away because we're waiting to see what happens, but in the case of the Lansing Bridge, the the Black Hawk Bridge, that was definitely on the list of *** bridge that needed to be replaced, definitely in the poor category. And so that is over *** federally uh controlled waterway, the Mississippi River, and it goes between Iowa and Wisconsin. So you've got. Federal funding coming in for that, but you've also got Iowa and Wisconsin bearing and splitting evenly the rest of the tap for that $140 million project. So that's going to be something that has some diversified, yes, revenue stream, uh, what about other bridges? Um, or does the federal government only get involved on the federal projects? Not necessarily, um, there are grants that counties can reach out for. And, and honestly there are lots of different funding mechanisms, um, and I don't think we have enough time to get into all of those but the bottom line is, uh, transportation officials said they know that the need is going to be there and these are this is *** cycle, right? Like every 10 years or 15 years you're gonna see bridges, Suzanne, I hate to cut you off, but we're out of time. Thank you so much for joining us. Close up, we'll be right back. Stay with us. The fallout continues in Washington DC over national security officials who are using the app Signal to discuss military strikes. Signal is *** non-government approved encrypted messaging app. The conversation was discovered after *** journalist was inadvertently included in that chat. Jeffrey Goldberg is The Atlantic's editor in chief. He published *** piece showing screenshots of messages between names or. Initials of 18 Trump officials. An account named Pete Hegseth laid out *** plan for strikes in Yemen that included precise information about weapons packages, targets, and timing of the attack shortly before it took place. *** spokesperson for the National Security Council has confirmed that the message thread appears to be authentic. Defense Secretary He denying disclosing classified information, and the president is defending him. There's no units, no locations, no routes, no flight paths, no sources, no methods, no classified information. I think it's *** witch hunt. Now the top Republican and Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee are requesting an investigation. Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley says he feels strongly about protecting classified information. If it should have been classified. Our new Secretary of Defense had the authority to do that, and he didn't do it. And then we also had statements from the White House that there was no classified information that got out as *** result of that journalists being on that call. If you're going to have that operation again and evidently it's something that's used very frequently. You ought to, you ought to have everybody say who's on here, who's listening, who's going to participate because if they had started out that way, that journalists wouldn't have been on there. In the letter from the Senate Armed Services Committee to the Department of Defense, lawmakers say they want an assessment of whether anyone transferred classified information and an assessment of classification and declassification policies. Thanks for joining us this morning. Have *** great day.